This work was rooted in one main goal: to set L&D Shakers up as a sustainable community, detached from any one single person, so it can thrive and prosper for years to come, no matter who's in the driver's seat, while remaining true to itself.

After several sense-making conversations, Anamaria, Maxine, and Li-hsien drew inspiration from the tribe's elders, who pass on their wisdom and customs to the younger generations. Could this be a model that L&D Shakers adopts to withstand the test of time?

There is only one way to find out: give it a try!

We reached out to Susanne Heiss from The Textualists and asked her to consult and facilitate the process. Susanne was an excellent thought partner and helped us roll out the process in three phases.

Phase one: A series of workshops and working groups with a small group of 10 Shakers to refresh the purpose and values.

In preparation for the workshop, Shakers were asked to capture one magical or emotional moment in the community since they joined, as well as a song that represents their experience with L&D Shakers. This ensured we arrived anchored in the vibe we all cherish inside the community.

During the session, in small groups, Shakers first anchored in their own personal values. Next, each group chose a set of 4 values they believed represented our community and brought them back to the plenum to share and pitch.

After each small group revealed its Shakers values, the group voted on the top 3 values that they believed most captured the community spirit.

We then divided into three working streams to continue working asynchronously: one group would fine-tune the values, the second group would refine the purpose, and the third group would work on rules of engagement and behaviors.

During the second workshop, each group shared its work and gathered feedback from the rest.

We took all these sticky notes and ideas and created a clean version of the purpose and values, which is now ready to be shared with the rest of the Core Team.

Phase two: A series of workshops to bring the new purpose and values to the Core Team, and run an audit of our current ecosystem based on the new values.

We’ve hosted 3 workshops across three time zones and invited the Core Team to lay eyes on the work we’ve been doing, give feedback, and spot anything we might have missed in phase one.